Jak and Daxter: The Unrestriction
by reithedragonboy
Summary: The long-awaited sequel to The Altered Journey. The summary will be in the first couple of chapters since it's pretty long and will obviously not fit in here. Hope you'll all like the story just as much as you loved the other one.
1. Jak and Daxter Members of The Resistance

Hello everybody! This is the sequel to The Altered journey that most of you have been waiting for all this time. Now that we all know that this journey has been altered and is now a new adventure, this story will show how different it is and possibly pose a few more questions to keep you all buzzing around for more. Here's the summary for this.

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**Summary**: After an exploration attempt gone wrong, Jak and Daxter found themselves in an unfamiliar city filled with dangers that neither of them knew existed. They crashed-landed in Haven City, a place where trouble is around every corner that you turn. Upon a few minutes of being there, they were accosted by a man by the name of Errol, the commander of the military group called the Krimzon Guard, or KG for short, a bunch of corrupted men under the control of an even worse corrupted leader, General Praxis.

By living through sheer instinct alone, both teens have survived the many threats the city had to throw at them while also making a couple of new friends along the way. On the same token, they have made new enemies, namely the baron of the city and Commander Errol who seems to have some obsession with wanting to capture them. Their reason for doing so: to subject them to an inhumane experiment created and funded by members of the Haven City council.

After managing to narrowly dodge a bullet and escaping from captivity by their sworn enemies with the help of their new friend, a man by the name of Sig, the man and his partner bring both teens to where they worked, one of the base of operations for The Resistance, a group of rebels set on trying to overthrow the corruption of Haven City and help fix the problems caused by it. After having a long talk with the leader of the group, Torn, and learning that they were somehow thrown over two hundred years into the future, Jak agreed to join the group on their crusade for a free city; Daxter grudgingly followed along with the idea, although he deep down really wanted to also help out with things.

Now that both teens are members of The Resistance, this allows them more freedom to move around the city and the ability to explore while on mission. With this great mobility with them, they now have the chance to try and find their friends Samos and keira, who both had came here with them and were separated. Even though they weren't sure if they were here in the city or even in the same time frame as them, they held onto hope as they continued looking while working for The Resistance.

Unfortunately for them, something dark is stirring under their noses. Despite this great change in pace for their lives, they are still always in constant danger. And unlike those they experienced back at home at Sandover, this kind of danger is nothing to be confronted with a smile. This is no longer fun and games for our heroes who were forced to quickly grow up so as to adapt to this hellish life. They could be killed at any moment, and they live every single day fighting to survive as they commit to job after job.

We now start the story just after Jak and Daxter have finished the first part of a mission they were assigned to by the Resistance.

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Chapter 1: Jak and Daxter, Members of The Resistance**

"Hey, do you think that you can try driving this hunk of junk just a bit more carefully big guy?" Daxter shouted out over the roar of a Zoomer as he and Jak shot through the skies of Haven City. "I would like to hold on to both my lunch and the rest of my beautiful fur that hasn't fall off because of all the stress I've been under, you know? This is starting to feel more like a stupidly crazy rollercoaster ride instead of a simple locate and retrieval mission we're supposed to be on. That and I think you're about to finally succeed in making me feel carsick for the first time in my life."

"Sorry, but I don't really feel like slowing this thing down, so you're just going to have to live with the speed I'm moving at," the blond teen responded as he kept his eyes on the road in front of him and dodged both cars in front of him and incoming ones. He had his goggles over his eyes to prevent himself from becoming blind from a bug or something that might have been flying right in his path and to allow him to better see whatever it is that might want to hit them from behind or shoot them out of the air from somewhere on the ground thanks to the warning program built into the red lens. "I guess you're just going to have to hunker down and live with it. And besides, your mind's never too focused on one thing for too long for you to be getting carsick anytime soon."

"Jak!" the Ottsel with orange and yellow fur that could easily be mistaken for a small blazing flame managed to exclaim loudly before the roar of the engine overtook out his voice and they began moving at a speed faster than before. The poor animal, who also had his goggles on that did little to help him stay on the insanely moving vehicle, barely managed to grab a hold of the teen's blue biker jacket collar as he felt his feet leave his perch on his shoulder from the sudden burst of speed. He then shouted louder in an attempt to make his anger clear to his buddy but only managing to make whatever words he said sound just above a very soft murmur, "If you don't start slowing this moving deathtrap down, I swear I'm going to kill you the moment we get back to our apartment with my own two furry little hands!"

"That's pretty close to the same thing that you said the last time we went on a ride like this Dax," the teen shouted back as he weaved through a couple of Zoomers he thought were moving too slow. "You didn't exactly follow up on your threat to kill me by falling asleep right on top of my chest."

"Oh yeah?" the animal spat out as he managed to plant his two feet on the firm shoulder and readjusted his grip on the tuft of blond hair that had grown slightly longer over the time they have lived in Haven City. "So what if I don't really follow up on my threats to kill you? I'll just find other ways to punish you. See if I'm going to be curled up on top of you tonight if we live through your crazy driving.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be sleeping on top of me tonight. Last I checked, you can't generate your own body heat ever since you turned into an Ottsel, so you either sleep on top of me or look for someone else to cuddle up with. You'll only end up punishing yourself," the blond added with a half-grin as pushed down hard on the gas pedal, forcing the engine to rev loudly so as to purposely drown out the impending response that he knew would come from his buddy.

It had been about three or so months since both Jak and Daxter found themselves in a new place tethered with its own set of adventures and dangers, dangers deadlier than what they were used to living through. However, thanks to the blond teen's ability to think quickly on his feet when put in the middle of a life or death situation, the two have adapted rather nicely with life in Haven City, although they were still used to the subtleness and quietness their old home, Sandover, had to offer them. And through those life and death situations, they learned that this city was not as peaceful as their village home used to be.

And during those three months they spent getting used to city life and the dangers it offered, they also learned more about the place they were now forced to call home and the troubles they were having, both internally and externally. They learned that the city's army, the Krimzon Guard, was a group of people abusing the use of their power and caring more about minor injunctions instead of major issues like robberies and murders unless it actually happened right in front of their faces or involved one of their own. They were all completely useless and could not be relied upon for something important, something that the higher-ups residing in the Haven City Palace clearly know about and willingly choose to ignore. Basically, the entire army was nothing but a bunch of corrupt people with even more corrupted leader living it up at the palace at the expense of innocent lives being disrupted all around him.

In terms with the external problems that were plaguing the city, all the corruption with the Krimzon Guard seemed to be a lot better than the things lurking just outside of the city walls. It was really the only thing they were really keen on doing without having to think twice about it, and that was to protect the gray drab city wall from the attacks instigated from the Metal Heads, a bunch of metallic monsters that seemingly want to take over every single spot where human civilization thrive. In fact, it is believed that Haven City is probably the only place left on the planet to be a safe haven for the people from the desolateness of the outside, hence the name that it has now. Even though they always manage to keep the monsters at bay, they always manage to chip away a little at a time off of their only protection. It was only a matter of time before they managed to breach the walls and cause major damage to the city.

Despite this rather bleak outlook at the future of this place, neither Jak nor Daxter have had the privilege to see a Metal Head with their own two eyes. They have also never really heard any sounds or even any news of an attack against the city walls since they first arrived. While this did bode well for both them and the wellbeing of the city, they could not help but to be just a little bit curious as to what the monsters looked like and how they fared during battle. At least they could easily say that they were lucky enough to have been transported into a city that was protected from all of the unknown dangers that surrounded them outside the city walls every day. Now if only they were able to have an easier time trying to survive against the trouble that plagues the city...

Both boys have lived among the danger and corruption of the Krimzon Guard for almost six months now; the blond teen has been keeping count for a lack of anything better to do. Over this course of time, both boys have hardly changed in both attitude and appearance. Jak was still sporting his new set of clothing he had obtained from a few days after first crash-landing into the city and was still sporting his new short cut except now letting it be just a bit longer. Daxter was still the same hyper Ottsel he usually was with the same short orange and yellow fur with his goggles and fingerless gloves on him. Even his childish and sometimes argumentative side remained intact. Overall, the only real change that occurred in the two teens was the outlook that they had on the dangers that Haven City had to offer them in all hours of the day.

One such trouble that always made a reoccurring appearance with their life was the commander of the Krimzon Guard and probably one of the many strong reasons why they were even corrupted. Errol, a name that they could never forget ever since the time he tried to place them under arrest and subjugate them to a vile Dark Eco project, was and still is always on the constant lookout for them, seemingly waiting for them to make just one wrong move so he can swoop in and recapture them after they managed their escape from what they now knew as the baron's palace. Despite his annoying tenacity and also somewhat obsessiveness at wanting to capture them, the teens have always foiled him at every chance they got.

"Are we almost there, big guy?" Daxter asked after spending a couple of minutes staying quiet and finally feeling the need to open his mouth. "I can't wait to dump this cargo we managed to snag from a Krimzon transport unit onto that Torn guy and get it out of our hands. I'm starting to feel like we got some kind of shooting target on the backs of our heads or something like that."

"Don't worry; we'll be there in a few more minutes so long as traffic keeps looking this good and we don't run into any Krimzon Guard forces," Jak responded coolly as he slowed down a bit once they reached a less densely populated section of the town. "More importantly, did you remember to take out a bit of the stuff we snagged from the canister? You had the past fifteen minutes to have taken at least one small jar full of it."

"Oops, I knew I was forgetting something," the Ottsel stated as he quickly got off of his perch on the teen's shoulder and began digging in the small bag that was strapped on the blonde's waist. He then pulled out an empty jar along with what appeared to be a small set of tongs while saying, "How long do you think I have to crack this thing open, take some of the stuff out, and seal it back up as if it were never opened during the time we were transporting it?"

"Seriously Dax?" the blond asked, his voice clearly echoing his annoyance at his little buddy's forgetfulness. "You had more than enough time to have done all that before we even made it to this part of town. I don't know what I'm going to do with you. Look, I'll try to slow this thing down a bit to buy you some more time. You should have a little over five minutes to finish up. If only I didn't radio in to Torn and tell him that we'd be back in no more than a half an hour...," he grumbled out under his breath as he lowered the speed of the Zoomer ever so slightly.

"As if you're grumbling complaint is really going to be of any help to us at this point. Just make sure you don't go making any crazy movements or crash this damn hunk of junk into a wall or something like that. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to do anything if you go ahead and drive like a maniac again."

Without saying anything else, Daxter began to work on whatever it was that he was supposed to do with the cargo they took earlier. With the jar and tongs in one hand, he began moving slowly towards the back of the Zoomer near the twin engines that were on this particular model where the cargo was tied securely to the seat. Once he made it to the cylindrical container that looked quite unremarkable and did not show the contents it was holding, he took out a screwdriver from the small tool bag around his thin waist and began working on unscrewing the screws on the cap.

Once he took out all of the screws, he carefully pocketed them into his tool bag so as to not lose them during the ride. He then wrapped his small hands over the lid and lifted it up off the canister, carefully placing it in Jak's pants belt so it would not fall to the ground. By now, the contents were now exposed for Daxter to see. Inside was a cloud-like substance that seemed to hold form yet also seemed to have movement like misty fog during the morning hours at the Haven City harbor. This was otherwise known as Eco, more specifically Red Eco as declared by the brilliant ruby red color it gave off.

"Well, it looks like we got ourselves some Red Eco this time around," the Ottsel murmured under his breath with a small whistle escaping his lips. Because the Zoomer engine was not running at so strong of a power it was earlier, the blond easily heard his buddy say what was inside their pilfered cargo. He then said as he pinched the lip of the open jar with his tongs, "If I remember what old Loghead told us about this, it can up the strength of anybody and almost anything. And what use do you think we'll have for a strength enhancer, big guy?"

"Hey, you never know when it might come in handy," Jak simply responded with a small shrug of his shoulders as he began driving down a line of confusing alleys that hardly had any people or other Zoomers in it. "Just hurry it up and put the some of the stuff in the jar. We're going to be at our meeting place with Torn in just a couple more minutes, and I can't slow this thing down anymore unless I want to make us late. You know how Torn gets when you say you'll be there at some time and end up appearing later than him."

"Ha, the guy should really learn to relax every now and then unless he wants to knock himself out with a killer ulcer. It's not like he's got anything real important to do if he's actually leaving his dark, dank dungeon just to meet up with us for the retrieval.

"Just don't worry about it; I'm filling this stupid thing up as quickly as I can with you driving behind the wheel," Daxter added with a roll of his eyes as he dipped the jar into the canister and began filling it up with the Red Eco. "I don't really have the steadiest of hands when you're busy accelerating and braking and all that other stuff. And I'll make sure that none of the stuff ends up spilling onto our ride here. I learned my lesson from last time."

"Yeah, I don't want to have another unexpected acceleration burst because of a few drops of Blue Eco falling onto the engines. That time where we almost crashed right into a Krimzon Guard transport vehicle was completely your fault. We ended up being chased by it all around town probably twice over before they decided to give up. Only the Precursors know what might happen if that stuff fell onto these engines."

"Oh, can we please stop playing the blame game with that? That stupid chase scene happened more than three weeks ago. The important thing is that we managed to survive that, and I think it's about time you forgotten about that. That and I don't think this would really cause any major problems if it spilled onto this thing.

"Anyway, I'm just about done stealing some of the stuff we originally stole from those punks," the Ottsel added as he brought the jar carefully out of the canister and quickly closed it with the jar lid he had tucked inside his tool bag. Once it was securely sealed, he put the whole thing inside his bag and began to quickly seal up the canister. "All I need to do now is close it up and nobody will know a thing."

"I hope you're almost done sealing up that Eco canister back there because we're here now," Jak warned his buddy as he began to slow down and started to lower the Zoomer towards the ground. "The last thing we need now is to be kicked out of the Resistance for stealing a bit of what we've already stolen for them."

"It doesn't take that long to screw back on a couple of loose screws, although I do sometimes wish that I could tighten up the screws in some of the psycho's heads that we tend to run into. Just make sure you don't park as quickly as you sometimes do."

After spending a few extra seconds parking so as to buy just a little bit more time, they had completely stopped and were now parked on the ground. By the time Jak smoothly turned off the engine and took the key out of the ignition, Daxter had finished screwing on the last screw on the lid and put his screwdriver back into his tool bag. He hopped off of the Zoomer and landed gracefully on the ground, and the blond took the canister of Red Eco of his hands and began walking towards one of the doors they had first entered when Sig brought them here for the first time three months ago.

"Looks like you two got another successful mission under your belts," a rough and deep voice stated from somewhere within the seemingly desolate alley. "You're starting to make a name for yourself here in The Resistance. At this rate, you'd both probably be at the same rank as Sig and Jinx in no time."

In a couple of seconds, the familiar form of Torn, the commander of The Resistance, appeared from a corner. He had on the same articles of clothing he was wearing when they were first brought in front of him after they broke out of Baron Praxis's palace with the help of two of the commander's men. He had a gun holstered onto his waist with his right hand at the ready in case the need to bring it out arose.

"Do you honestly think that such a simple search and retrieval mission like that would've been able to get the better of us?" Daxter asked with his skinny arms crossed across his chest as he quickly let his cocky attitude take over and do all the talking. "Those Krimzon idiots were nothing more than a bunch of sissy pushovers; we had a lot more of a workout taking care of a bunch of lurkers back home at Sandover. We could easily do the whole thing with one hand tied behind our backs if you made us do it again."

"I see you're still quite adamant on saying that you both once lived in the old village that existed over two hundred years ago," the commander responded with a sigh escaping his lips at the Ottsel's annoying attitude and cocky voice. "To be honest with you, I don't understand why you both continue to claim of a life beyond the lifespan of any of us here in this dystopia of a city. It can easily paint you both out as a couple of boys driven to insanity with all the crazy things going on around here, you know?"

"Although I do appreciate you voicing the concerns you have for us, I don't think that wherever it is we say we once lived at is really of any importance right now," Jak responded, suddenly taking on a serious tone that he usually used when talking with Torn or other higher-ups that he knew to be their ally and friend with a couple of exceptions here and there. He then stuck the canister in his hands out towards the commander and said, "I think what you're really interested in is this little canister of stuff filled with something more so than why we keep saying what we always say."

"Always straight to the point with you, isn't it Jak?" the man asked in a tone that sounded more like a statement with a sigh that sounded more like a sharp exhalation of his breath as he took the offered canister into his hands. "Don't get me wrong on this; I'm still quite skeptical about you two's past life that you both seem so intent on keeping from me. Consider yourselves lucky that I'm a good judge of character; otherwise, you wouldn't be a part of The Resistance with such suspicion hanging over your heads."

"And I suppose that you want us to thank you for exercising your ever so merciful side on us on that accord," Daxter sarcastically added as he quickly climbed up the blonde's leg and perched himself back onto his shoulder. "Well, that ain't going to be happening anytime soon, you big Tattooed Wonder."

"Ugh, I don't know how Jak manages to put up with you and your childish attitude every single moment of every single day. You're like some kind of big annoying rat that doesn't know when to quit while it's ahead. All I need now is a humungous mouse trap and a couple of rat poison to finally get you out of my hair."

"Not unless my big buddy here has anything to say about that. He can't work without me on his shoulder constantly yelling away in his ear, and I can't really be calling us the 'Demolition Duo' if I'm suddenly out of the picture."

"Do you mind if I asked you a question before we leave Torn?" Jak asked as he tried to butt in between the two before they started another pointless argument that usually droned on with no end in sight. "While we were intercepting the Krimzon transport and taking one of their cargos, they were saying something about losing their can of Eco. If there is Eco in there, then what do you need it for?"

"Just because you're now a part of our group doesn't mean that you get to know why we do every little thing we ask you or other members to do," the commander simply replied with a quick nasty look at the Ottsel before he turned around and began heading back down the way he first came from. "And even if I did feel some kind of obligation to tell you, I'm afraid that we've spent way too much time out here in the open together. Despite this being a relatively closed-off portion of the alley from the public, someone chancing to see us in here might find it suspicious and actually be stupid enough to go reporting us to the KG. Anyway, I'll call you again once I have another mission lined up for you two."

And with that, the commander of The Resistance disappeared around the corner he first came through and was out of the two teen's sights without saying another word with the pilfered cargo in tow, thus ending their quick and short meeting.

"Humph, I don't like how that guy always acts so stuck-up around us and makes himself out to be some kind of important person at the same freaking time," Daxter scoffed with a scowl on his face. "He's only just a leader of a group of people who all really love to hate the baron and his KG cronies as much as we do. I don't think that'd really give him the power to boss us around like he always does. We're still a couple of teens with our whole lives ahead of us, not a couple of simple slaves meant to do whatever our master pleases."

"Oh, it really isn't all that bad, is it Dax?" Jak asked in a comforting tone as he brought his right hand under the Ottsel's chin and began to lightly scratch it. "All we're really doing is taking a few things from the KG and bringing it to him like he's asking us to do. It's not as though he's asking us to go spying on the baron or Errol for some juicy piece of information or anything like that."

"Yeah, well..., you...you try...," the animal tried to say but could not help himself stuttering as he relaxed into the relaxing movement under his chin and could not help it. Even his left foot started to twitch and flap around uncontrollably. He then tried again while trying to sound angry and ended up letting a small contented purr escape from the back of his throat as a result, "You try being...a small, furry Ottsel and trying to...talk some sense into the big and stubborn...Tattooed Wonder. That and you...constantly giving me this really wonderful pet animal treatment...doesn't really help a lot."

"And you seem to really love it when I do this to you," the blond responded with a playful smile on his face as he took Daxter into his hand and turned him upside down. He then proceeded to tickle his tummy as if he were really some kind of pet. "This is the only way that you can become calm and relaxed after working yourself up over nothing, you know? I'm probably the only one in this entire world who knows how to make you wind down after a real stressful time."

"Oooohhhh yeeeaaahhh," the animal drawled out as he felt his foot start kicking even faster and let his tongue hang out of the side of his mouth with a look of ecstasy on his face. Even his tail was wagging so fast that the blonde's forearm was starting to feel a bit cold from the small breeze. He then added in a voice that could easily have been mistaken for a drunken slur, "You're definitely...the only one who's able to...make me feel this relaxed! That and...you're the only one...who I'd let you do this to me. Mmm, this is _soooooo good_!"

"Oh, you are so adorable when you're acting like this, you know that?" Jak stated more than asked as he started walking towards the Zoomer they had parked a few feet away from them a few minutes ago while still holding onto his ecstatic buddy in his hand. "Just being able to mess around with you like this every now and then really helps me to unwind. You're definitely a one-of-a-kind friend out of a million."

"You better believe it, big guy!" Daxter happily exclaimed as he felt himself being set down on the blonde's lap and soon heard the sound of the Zoomer engine coming to life. He then continued on with a small yawn escaping his lips, "Last time I checked, the both of us practically trust each other so much like a couple of inseparable close-knit brothers. So how's about playing the role of a nice big brother and taking us back home so we's could have ourselves some nice little cuddling time?"

"If you're talking about taking a nice relaxing nap, then that sounds like a really good idea," the teen said as he sat down on the seat of the vehicle and placed his buddy across his lap before putting the key into the ignition. "You go ahead and do that on my lap while I drive us back home. You really deserve the rest today, that's for sure."

Instead of receiving an answer, all the blond heard was a light murmuring sound that sounded suspiciously like repeated purring noises. When he looked down at his lap again, he saw that the Ottsel had fallen fast asleep and was cuddled up against his stomach with a small smile on his face and his tail swishing around sluggishly.

"Why is it that almost every time I try to help you relax, you end up getting knocked unconscious?" he asked more to himself than his small buddy as he chuckled at the scene and thought. "Looks like you're forcing me to drive carefully now unless I want you screaming in my ear again about giving you a rude awakening throughout the entire night. Even in sleep, you somehow manage to get what it is that you want."

With another small chuckle leaving the back of his throat, he started the Zoomer engine and gave it a couple of moments to gather up its full power. Once the twin engines were warmed up, he shifted the gear so that they would be hovering above the ground and stepped on the gas on their way out of the practically abandoned alleyway. This time around, he drove at a nice slow pace the whole way through so as to not disturb his little buddy from his sleep while trying not to bring too much attention to them so that the Krimzon Guard would start chasing them for revenge on stealing their Red Eco earlier. And he continued to drive both slowly and casually until they made it back to the apartment that they have called home for the past few months they have been living in Haven City.

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Well, I hope that you all like this introductory and the summary here. I figured I put a short recap in it so as that you would all kind of remember some of the key points from the first story.

Also, I tried to make it so that both teens grew into their characters a bit during the time they were living in Haven City and working alongside the Resistance. I also decided to keep the childish behavior they both have and always show whenever they're with each other with no one else around them. It was and is meant to counter the seriousness they were in and show that they are still themselves despite having to grow a bit quicker than normal.

That's just a short explanation as to how I formatted this chapter. Please don't forget to leave a review on this new chapter. Hope you all like this new story. Until the next update everybody.


	2. A KG and Metal Head Conspiracy

Hello everybody! This is the next chapter of this story. Yes, it's a pretty fast update, but I just couldn't stop the ideas for this from flowing out of my head. Besides, I kind of figured that this second chapter is also another introductory chapter, just on a different viewpoint.

Anyway, I hope that you'll all enjoy this new chapter! Here's the summary one more time for those who forgot what it was or just plain refused to read it and skipped it over. Yes, the summary is good for those who didn't read my first installment for it summarizes the key points stated from it.

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**Summary**: After an exploration attempt gone wrong, Jak and Daxter found themselves in an unfamiliar city filled with dangers that neither of them knew existed. They crashed-landed in Haven City, a place where trouble is around every corner that you turn. Upon a few minutes of being there, they were accosted by a man by the name of Errol, the commander of the military group called the Krimzon Guard, or KG for short, a bunch of corrupted men under the control of an even worse corrupted leader, General Praxis.

By living through sheer instinct alone, both teens have survived the many threats the city had to throw at them while also making a couple of new friends along the way. On the same token, they have made new enemies, namely the baron of the city and Commander Errol who seems to have some obsession with wanting to capture them. Their reason for doing so: to subject them to an inhumane experiment created and funded by members of the Haven City council.

After managing to narrowly dodge a bullet and escaping from captivity by their sworn enemies with the help of their new friend, a man by the name of Sig, the man and his partner bring both teens to where they worked, one of the base of operations for The Resistance, a group of rebels set on trying to overthrow the corruption of Haven City and help fix the problems caused by it. After having a long talk with the leader of the group, Torn, and learning that they were somehow thrown over two hundred years into the future, Jak agreed to join the group on their crusade for a free city; Daxter grudgingly followed along with the idea, although he deep down really wanted to also help out with things.

Now that both teens are members of The Resistance, this allows them more freedom to move around the city and the ability to explore while on mission. With this great mobility with them, they now have the chance to try and find their friends Samos and keira, who both had came here with them and were separated. Even though they weren't sure if they were here in the city or even in the same time frame as them, they held onto hope as they continued looking while working for The Resistance.

Unfortunately for them, something dark is stirring under their noses. Despite this great change in pace for their lives, they are still always in constant danger. And unlike those they experienced back at home at Sandover, this kind of danger is nothing to be confronted with a smile. This is no longer fun and games for our heroes who were forced to quickly grow up so as to adapt to this hellish life. They could be killed at any moment, and they live every single day fighting to survive as they commit to job after job.

We now start the story just after Jak and Daxter have finished the first part of a mission they were assigned to by the Resistance.

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Chapter 2: A Krimzon Guard and Metal Head Conspiracy**

_Meanwhile, somewhere in Haven City..._

"It has been three months since we last had contact with each other," a strong and dark voice responded through a large holographic communicator inside a room completely enveloped in a fog of pure darkness. "I imagine that you have been as busy as I have with things on my side. May I also assume that things are not going very well on your side?"

"I wish I would be able to say otherwise on the subject, Kor," a man's voice was heard responding to the communicator in front of him from somewhere in the darkness of the room where the only source of light was from the machine itself and little cracks in the curtains covering the windows. "The good baron and his merry little band of councilmen he constantly goes to in order to gain their terrible insight for have been driving me ragged now that The Resistance has seemingly gained the help of a new ally that's more than capable of causing his own fair share of damage and then some."

"I suppose that's something that can't be helped," the grainy figure responded with a sigh escaping his lips as he shook his head. "After all, we can't have you, Commander Errol of the Krimzon Guard, to not be following orders and gain a cloud of suspicion over your head. That would definitely put me at a clear disadvantage if that were to happen. You are my best bet in insuring that my plans of conquering Haven City come to fruition. It's quite hard to believe that the both of us are facing problems of our own here."

"To be quite honest with you, I've noticed quite a slowdown on my side of this war ever since something happened six months ago," the commander responded, his voice being the only thing proving he was still there since the darkness had completely enveloped him. "There have been so many internal troubles within the city that keep barring me from trying to sway the members of the city council and have them go along with the plans I have set out for your conquering to occur. They've decided to focus more of their time to Resistance trouble rather than the now current idleness of your Metal Head troops. It seems as though you managed to put yourself on the back burner for the time being."

"I would suppose that that'd be partially my fault on that accord," the Metal Head leader responded, his voice having a bit of a bitter bite to it as it sounded like he really was admitting fault when he is known to never do so in front of anybody under any circumstances. "I have been letting my troops become lax on the offensive against the wall, and that in turn has fueled the council to become less concerned with me. Then again, only you would know why I would dare to show a weakened interest to Haven City."

"I have suspected that there was something outside of the city walls that has been taking a good portion of your attention away from us. What is out there that would cause you to not contact me during the past three months? Perhaps I'll be able to help you with your troubles in some way under the guise of going on a survey mission beyond the city walls."

"I suggest that you do not worry about my problems and concentrate on trying to fix yours so that we may be able to get back on track with our plans. Judging from what you've told me, your troubles have all started when The Resistance claimed to have gained a new ally in their journey for conquest of the city."

"Yes, and judging by the reports of the Krimzon Guards that have survived the encounter with the new member, I have come to realize that this person is the same one who has been causing me all this grief since six months ago," Errol responded with a growl as his tone gained a frustrated edge to it. "It's that accursed boy and his annoyingly loudmouth pet rat who are the new Resistance fighters!"

"Are they now?" Kor questioned, his voice clearly reflecting his intrigue on this new insight. "Well, I never thought that the boy would have had the strength to actually work for them on their mission to take back Haven City. He didn't exactly look like he would be up to the challenge to commit to something like that when I first saw him two hundred years ago. My, it's amazing how much can change in just six short months."

"So you first met this child and his pet rat about two centuries ago," Errol stated more than asked as he raised his eyebrows in confusion. "The last time we spoke on this subject, you refused to tell me when it was that you first met them. Now that I know when it happened, would you mind if I asked you how it is that you managed to meet him all those years ago? I doubt that you have the ability to live so long, and you only made yourselves known to the world a good fifty or so years ago according to the history books here."

"I believe I told you during our last meeting that this was something that did not concern you in the slightest," the Metal Head commander replied as he promptly denied the Krimzon Guard commander an answer to his inquiry. "It has nothing to do with you having to finish up the mess your leaders caused for the both of us. I suggest that that is where you should concentrate your efforts on redirecting their mindset back to their own destruction rather than trying to figure out my past for your own entertainment purposes."

"I'm not sure you remember this, although I don't blame you since we've been working together on either side of this invisible line for quite a while, so I'll give you a friendly reminder. I am but a simple commander in the baron's forces. Although I do hold a high standing with my title, I still don't have enough authority to simply walk up to the council members and demand that they follow my suggestions. I can, however, meet with the baron without having to request an audience, but he tends to take the side of his beloved council members, especially those of Count Veger, the head councilman."

"He is the man who helped funded my beloved Dark Eco Warrior project when I asked you to imprint the idea and concept into the baron's head, isn't he? I don't see how a man such as him who is so willingly donating his resources unknowingly to our cause would cause us trouble in swaying the baron's mind."

"Well, despite the fact that he is clearly on the side of the people who we are so desperately trying to take down, I can't help but feel that he has some kind of agenda of his own. Because he's the head councilman though, I don't have any authority to question the decisions he makes against my battle tactics and suggestions on how to have my men patrol the city. I've been lucky so far to keep him wrapped around my finger for the past few months, but he's quickly starting to unravel himself from me."

"And with him being a head councilman, you can't do too much against him lest you want to pose yourself off as nothing but a commander who isn't worth their trouble in keeping employed," Kor finished off as he clearly understood the trouble his only contact within the city walls was having with swaying things to their favor. "Then I suppose I have no choice but to redirect more of my attention back onto the destruction of the wall surrounding your city. Hopefully, that will give your more than enough power to sway that man's mind into believing that your plans are the best course of action to take."

"Are you sure it's wise to redirect your attention to this city when you have been trying to take care of threats that are on your side?" Errol asked as he finally decided to step within reach of the light brought on by the holographic communicator. He was seen with one of his eyebrows raised in question. "I've never heard of people living outside of these walls, but the fact that your attention has been on them lately does have me somewhat honestly concerned."

"Don't get me wrong; I'm only going to be sending in a small amount of my troops to attack your walls," the Metal Head commander simply stated. "At most, I'll only have two groups attacking the same walls at different times. Would you not agree that having one group come in and attack and then having the second group come later as the form of reinforcements would easily waver the minds in paying more attention to their outer defenses? After all, the human mind is quite interesting in that when it senses an immediate danger, any increase to that danger would send them panicking and most likely have them believing that the danger is greater than it really is."

"Ah, a psychological trick," the Krimzon Guard commander responded as he realized what the other's plan was. "In this day and age where everybody is worried about whether or not they'll live to see another day, such trickery would most likely be very effective. It'll certainly help me once again gain the upper hand with the members of the council as well as the baron. When that's all done, perhaps even that Count Veger will once again begin to believe that my tactics are the way to go for the good of this city."

"So long as it'll be able to help you to get out plans back on track, I'll send my men to the city walls as soon as possible once I feel that this annoyance on my side has been dealt with accordingly."

"Speaking of which, you didn't answer my earlier question as to what it is that's preoccupying you out there. As far as I'm concerned, there's only a big stretch of desert and dead cities now occupied by your men. Except for the one you told me you were still fighting to gain complete control over and have no problem with, I don't see what else is out there that would pose much of a threat to you."

"To be quite honest with you, even I don't know who they are or where they come from. My best assumption here is that these people are all from towns and cities that I have destroyed and taken over. It does make the best sense, after all. They all travel from place to place hoping to find some kind of semblance of a stable society and travel this long forsaken desert with others they meet up along the way. If that is true, then I would suppose that they tried to make their way here and saw me and my troops already here trying to take it over. Normally, I would quickly make myself rid of them, but they are quite organized for such a small group and commit to an attack-and-retreat method."

"Have you not tried to have some of your men follow those guerilla attackers since they keep retreating? If they do that, then they should be able to lead you to their feeble encampment, and you can just do away with them all in one fell swoop."

"You honestly think that I haven't thought of that when they first decided to make themselves known to me?" Kor asked as he sounded pretty offended at being made out as some kind of commander who could not even think beyond his primary goals. "I've sent out a small team of scouts when they first started disturbing me all those months ago. The only problem with that is that they never returned after I sent them out, so I can only assume that those distractions somehow managed to get the drop on them. Since then, I've been trying everything I could do in order to locate their base, but they continually thwart me at every turn they get. It's absolutely infuriating, I tell you."

"And I suppose you don't want my help on this regard," Errol stated in a knowing voice as he dug into his pocket and began fiddling around with his portable communicator despite not having received any kind of call whatsoever from anybody. "What is it that you'll have me do in here then besides getting our plans back on track? I can do two things at once since swaying the council's mind has been made a lot easier with the help you'll be supplying me."

"For starters, I would like for you to continue on with what I had asked you to do from our last meeting. I want you search the entirety of Haven City for this amazing power source that I can still sense pulsating strongly from somewhere inside. I know not where it is from here, so it's up to you to try and locate it before it falls into the hands of those who want to use it to stop me. I have a feeling that it might have something to do with the blasted Precursors, but I want you to locate it to make sure my suspicions are right. Once I know what it is, I'll tell you how I want you to deal with it accordingly."

"With all due respect Kor, I don't think that is really possible at this moment," Errol stated as he started to explain his reasons as to why this was so. "For the past few months, I've been searching everywhere I could in the city without raising too much suspicion on myself. Despite all that, I have yet to find anything that would merit such a strong power output that you have described. The only spot I haven't checked yet is the sewers of this city, but to go down there requires a suitable explanation that would allow me to send a team down there to go searching, and to ask for it now is not possible what with that Jak boy and his obnoxious rat causing so much trouble for us along with a few other choice things."

"Well Errol, perhaps you can request for a team to go down there under the pretense of simply making sure that there's no holes within the defensive line down there," the Metal Head commander suggested rather calmly despite the annoyance that was being reflected on his grainy facial image. "Maybe you could bring it up in your next meeting with the council and request for the search while telling them that you were thinking of seeing if there's any kind of breach whatsoever in the walls where my troops can come through. I'm sure they'll bend their ear to you if you tell them that."

"Unfortunately, the walls down there are made out of a material even stronger than the walls you're currently trying to break through. That kind of request is simply not going to stick with them. However, I think that I can come up with something else being that the stinky place has some kind of importance to the baron."

"So long as you're able to find some way to get down there without causing any unneeded attention to yourself, I'll be happy. Just make sure you find what is causing that huge spike in power.

"Secondly, I want to know how it is you're doing with the Dark Eco Warrior project," Kor added with a slight inquiry at the edge of his words. "May I suppose that you managed to find a suitable candidate for the project who can survive the process? Need I remind you that these warriors are the only ones capable of surviving anything that your men throw at it and destroy the walls from the inside out?"

"Yes, I remember it very clearly," the other man responded with a curt nod of his head. "However, I fear that the project has been put to an indefinite halt. Despite being able to sway everybody what an asset it would be to their rank and file, Count Veger has seen fit to stop putting in his contribution to the project and doesn't seem to be budging on that decision anytime soon. Apparently, he's discovered something that requires his money's attention more than the DEW project. Without his funding, I can't proceed with the experiments, regardless whether or not I manage to find someone capable enough to survive the process itself. Even the baron believes it to be a lost cause with all the failures that have occurred since the project first lifted off the ground two years ago."

"Well, then force them to believe that it isn't a lost cause. I refuse to lose the only means I have to cause real major damage within those accursed walls. I've been planning this out for a good decade already, and I refuse to back down from my master plan."

"I thought I already told you that I don't have that kind of authority to be exercising over them like that. Even if I did have that kind of power, Veger isn't exactly the easiest of people to manipulate. He has a great mentality that's only second to mines which makes him into a very headstrong man. He will most likely listen to me if something drastic were to happen, as I'm sure he will once you start attacking the walls again. However, I know that that will not be enough to sway him into believing that the Dark Eco project should be reinstated. It's not too much of a threat for him to even consider funding it again."

"Then I guess the only course of action left for me to take on this accord is to send one of my men in there and help you sway that tailcoat's mind. He's the general of my troops and knows how to morph himself into looking like one of those detestable humans, so he'll have no problem blending in with the rest of you. The only problem I have with that is I don't know how to bring him to your side of the wall without anyone noticing. I know that your men are always keeping watch over every part of the wall and that there's no way you can keep them away from it for even one second."

"I believe it's my turn to tell you to not worry about that," Errol stated as his lips curled up into an evil smirk as he came up with a quick idea in that diabolical head of his. "I think that I can squeeze in a chance for your man to come over the wall. I'm sure that your men will be trying to do some damage onto the outer wall when they go ahead and start attacking. Once they retreat, I'll go over the wall myself with one other man under the pretense of checking out the damage. Once we land and exit the vehicle, your general will go ahead and kill the Krimzon Guard that accompanies me and then don his armor. After a few minutes of waiting, we'll go back into the transport, go over the wall, and your man will officially be mingling among the rest of us. No one will be none the wiser about the switch."

"And what will you do should the family of the fallen soldier decides to inquire about his whereabouts?" Kor questioned in a tone that showed he clearly liked the idea yet still had some uneasiness about it. "It will prove cumbersome should he not return to his family and raise suspicions about what happened."

"Fortunately, any and all papers regarding the soldiers have to go through me first before they are to be handed off to anybody else. With that said, I can just easily forge a document saying that he was killed during the skirmish against your men and everything will be resolved. I'll have the maneuvering room I need to sway the council down the wrong path of defense, and you'll have a man on the inside working on getting the Dark Eco Warrior project back onto its feet."

"And what if your men choose to check the damage on the wall on their own after I have my men retreat?"

"I'll just simply command all them to come back over by claiming that you might be using the retreat as a means to give us a false sense of security and attack again while we're preoccupied. They'll believe anything I say when it comes to you Metal Heads, so I suggest that you stop worrying about having your general being caught or not have the chance to sneak on over here."

"The general is one of my best men I have here with me. I would hate for something to happen to him because of an unfortunate miscalculation on your part. That's all I'm simply worrying about here."

"And I promise to take good care of him during the very brief transportation period. I'll be the one driving the transport, so there'll be no one inside while the deed is being done. You have my word on it that everything will goo according to plan here."

"I hope for your sake that you're right on this," the Metal Head commander responded with a threatening growl escaping from the back of his throat. "I assure you, you don't want to be talking to me when I figure out that my only general has been found out and killed during the execution of your plan."

"And I don't think I'll ever have to be," the Krimzon Guard commander simply replied in a sure tone. "All you need to do is exercise a little bit of faith in me as you have been doing ever since I first joined up with you and everything will be fine."

"If you feel that you can close any and all gaps that would place suspicion on you, then go ahead and get to work on your plan. Just remember that I won't tolerate any failure or any kind of problems that will concern my general being injured or worse."

"I don't intend on giving you news like that anytime soon."

"If that is all you have to say on this and anything else, then I'm afraid that I'll have to go now. Those desert travelers have launched another hit-and-run attack on us."

"Just one more thing before you go, sir. What is it that you would like me to do with Jak and his obnoxiously orange talking rat?"

"...I want you to continue your efforts in trying to capture him alive," the Metal Head commander replied after a small pause and the faint sound of fighting coming from somewhere in the background. "Again, I don't care whether or not you kill his pet; just make sure the boy is captured alive and well. Once we get the DEW project running again, he'll be the first person whom you'll experiment on for compatibility with Dark Eco. I know he has an affinity for Eco in general since he was able to work an ancient Precursor artifact the first time I saw him. You know how all of those accursed artifacts use Eco to work, so I'm sure that he'll be able to handle the injection of this poisonous concoction."

"Very well," Errol responded with a wide evil smirk on his lips as he let an equally evil chuckle rumble in the back of his throat. "I will enjoy bringing upon great horrors upon that stupid animal has always had coming to him since the day we first met. And I will certainly enjoy the continuation of this game of cat and mouse with Jak."

"Now hurry up and go take care of things on your end. These desert rats are starting to become annoying. I'll call upon you again if I need you."

And with the faint sound of gunfire in the background, Kor cut the connection on his side and the empty room was now filled with the sound of white noise.

"Things are starting to move into place now," the Krimzon Guard commander continue to chuckle evilly to himself as he once again fiddled around with his communicator for no good reason other than he wanted to preoccupy his hands with something. "All I need to do here is fix up these unnecessary twists and we'll be back on track. Oh, if only this city knew what it has coming to it. Oh well, they'll figure it out eventually when the Metal Heads rain down its destruction upon them, and then I'll be the last person standing as I watch them all grovel on the floor and wonder why it is that I was the only one spared. That's when they'll learn that it's pointless to fight against fate, and that it's simply easier to side with the side that will guarantee your survival."

With his little self-monologue said, he pocketed his communicator and walked up to the machine, his battle boots echoing throughout the empty room. He then pressed a few buttons on it and the entire machine was shut down, allowing the entire room to now be engulfed in a cloak of ebon darkness and forever hiding the things that had just went on.

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Boy, you guys do not know how hard it was for me to make this chapter. Being that this was just a meeting between Kor and Errol, that meant that there really wasn't going to be any kind of action. That basically rendered me crippled since I'm used to writing down action scenes and was forced to mainly use talking words and descriptions that fit a meeting.

With that said, sorry if it sounded like it was drawn out with the constant talking I made them do. However, it was necessary for that to happen so you would all know where it was that these two crazy people were standing after the three month jump from the end of my first installment to this one.

Please leave an honest review as to what you thought of this chapter. It really helps me to write another one like this better, considering if I would even write one like this again. Anyway, until the next update everybody!


	3. Post Mission Relaxation

Hello everybody. Here's a new chapter for you all to read. I'm so tired with all this studying I have to do for finals, so sorry if this chapter isn't really up to the standards I usually write it in. Anyway I'll let yo uall be the judge about that as you erad it. HOpe you enjoy it.

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Chapter 3: Post-Mission Relaxation**

"Well, it looks a lot like you're starting to work your way up the social ladder within The Resistance," Sig said as he sat on a couch inside Jak and Daxter's apartment. The teens had only came home ten minutes ago when they happened to run into the big buff guy in the lobby talking with Tess who was just about to end her shift and retire for the day. Being that they managed to become the quickest of friends in such a short amount of time, they invited him into their place and decided to have a nice relaxing conversation. "This is definitely the first time I've seen such a quick rise in rank since I since I first started working here almost five years ago."

The man, their senior in The Resistance Group, was dressed in light clothing, the same style he was wearing when he rescued them from the baron's palace three months ago, with metal armor covering his torso and head, almost as if he had just finished from a job of sorts. In actuality, he had also just finished a job some time ago when the boys and he met each other in the lobby. They were all now sitting around a coffee table with their choice of drinks in their hands and talking about how their day went. He left his long metal coated boots on despite the teens' rather weak protest, claiming that he might be called in for something and wanted to be ready without wasting any time preparing.

"And how old are you now Sig, if you don't mind me asking?" Jak asked, curious as to how old the buff man was when he first started working with The Resistance and wanting to get some idea as to how much experience he really had in the field.

"Twenty-three," he responded without any hesitation. "I first started out here when I had just turned eighteen, three years older than you two if I remember you telling me your ages correctly. Yes, it used to be that you had to be eighteen in order to join up with them, but the times have changed, and Torn's started to become less picky for any help and great talent thrown at him about a couple years ago since he started losing some good men. I'm telling you; you two have talent that I haven't seen in all my years living here, and I'm pretty sure that the big man feels that same about you two."

"That's what you think," Daxter spat out as he brought his cup away from his lips and placed it on the table surface next to a tray holding two pots filled with a different drink, ignoring the compliment the man made and concentrating more on what he said before it. "The great Tattooed Wonder doesn't think we're good enough for him to tell us things that you and other people already know despite us willingly risking our own butts taking on dangerous jobs involving bunches of Krimzon Guard bozos every time. So what if we're just a bunch of rookies? We're probably the best dang bunch of rookies he's ever going to see and get in this lifetime. Doesn't that at least count for something with him?"

"Dax," Jak said in a whining tone that was clearly playful in nature. Although he did feel the same as the Ottsel, he still understood why Torn was purposefully retaining information from them. "Just because we've done a few things for him already, it doesn't mean that he should be able to trust us enough with information he thinks is too sensitive to be telling us. Besides, if you think about it carefully, all he's really given us as jobs were attacks and Krimzon Cargo Transport and taking their cargo back to him. These kinds of jobs don't really seem like something that he would make a person he really trusts do a lot."

"Trust me on this; he made me do those kinds of jobs a lot when I was just starting out myself," Sig stated as he took a sip from his cup. "Don't think that he's trying to pick on you or single you out because you're strangers to him. In this day and age, it's always safe to play your cards safer rather than trying to bluff your way to a win. Almost everybody in this town has only one chance to make their lives count, and Torn's always making sure he makes good on his only chance."

"Are you sure you're not just saying that because he's your boss and all that?" the animal asked in a disbelieving tone as he scuttled up onto the armrest that Jak's left arm was currently resting on. "With all those muscles and heavy-duty guns you tote around with you almost every second of the day, it seems like a waste of both you and his time if he made you do the same menial work he has us doing."

"What Torn cares more about here is skill, not just brute strength," the man explained as he picked up one of the pots and refilled his cup, the aroma being released slightly during the pouring and indicating that he was drinking coffee. "Even though my muscles were a big plus for him, they meant nothing unless I was able to prove that I was able to use them correctly in battle. I'm more than sure that that's what he's doing with you two; he's testing you to see how you can make do with what you have. It's almost impossible that you'd ever have everything that you need when you're in the middle of something either important or potentially lethal, and that's where skill and the ability to improvise comes in handy."

"Well, at least I can't say that I don't have any skill on me then," the blond teen responded playfully as he started to lightly stroke the middle of his buddy's back, earning him a contented purr. "If I can make a hyperactive Ottsel like the one under my hand calm and relaxed, I'm sure I can take just about anything that's thrown at me. That and I have yet to mess up on any of the retrieval missions I've been assigned."

"Hey, don't forget that I've also been pulling my weight around on these stupid missions," Daxter responded calmly with a small smile on his lips. "Who was the one who managed to short-circuit the Krimzon Guard's transport Zoomers just long enough for you to get what you needed and get out of there? Who was the one who managed to sabotage some of their engines to a point where they couldn't even drive their hunk of junk when they tried to run? And who was the one who was forced to improvise on the spot when they found out that I was sabotaging their rides and tried to kill me off before you got there to save me? Me, the great Orange Lightning, that's who!"

"Don't worry; I know you've been trying just as hard as me on these missions. Nobody else can think as quickly as you when it comes to figuring out how to force them to stop in their tracks. Now if only you could think that quickly and smartly during things other than just during our missions. That'd really make me a happy camper."

"Hey, I hope you're not trying to call me a dumb-dumb here," the Ottsel responded as he playfully swatted the hand petting him and sat straight up. "Don't forget that this dumb-dumb- is probably the only reason why you're still even here talking to me right now. Did you forget what happened six months ago when we first came here?"

"I thought I told you to drop that subject already," Jak said sharply as his face clearly darkened a bit and diverged away from playfulness, something that even Sig could notice. "If you want to remind me about something, please pick something besides the part where I probably nearly got captured as a guinea pig for their Dark Eco Warrior project on the same day we first came here. I don't know about you, but I rather forget about the whole thing."

"The DEW project...," the buff man murmured under his breath to himself as he looked thoughtful about it. He then asked, "You honestly don't know how lucky you two were that you managed to get out of that mess. If you didn't call me when you did, I wouldn't have been able to do anything because Torn asked me to look into something for him a minute later. That and you're even luckier that Ashelin was in the palace when I called her. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to get to you before that accursed baron went ahead with their stupid injections that could've potentially killed you."

"Speaking of Ashelin," the blond teen started, his voice clearly indicating that he wanted to change the subject while still trying to sound polite at the same time, "I don't think I've ever seen her in The Resistance base ever since we first started working there. Heck, the only time I remember seeing her was during your self-proclaimed rescue mission that you staged with her and Jinx's help."

"Yeah, I don't remember seeing her after that, too," the animal agreed as he moved towards the table and picked up his cup again after filling it with some more coffee and sugar. "Did she quit the group or something like that?"

"No, the girl's just busy with a lot of personal stuff that likes to pop up in her life," Sig simply answered without saying much more about it. "She's a special member of the group, and she's the only one allowed to willingly not follow through with what Torn asks or commands her to do depending on the situation she's in."

"When you say special, do you mean that she's the self-proclaimed princess of Haven City, or is it that she just so happens to be the Tattooed Wonder's love interest?" Daxter teased as he sniggered into the rim of his cup. He ended up getting a ticklish poke in the ribs by Jak for that comment.

"Well, I don't know about her being some kind of princess as you so nicely put it," the buff man responded in a tone that held the slightest hint of something that Jak could not discern. He did not really care about it now as he was lightly shaking his head at his friend's sarcastic antics. "There have been rumors, though, that Torn has had his eyes on her for a little while now. Nobody really knows for sure, and the commander definitely isn't going to be admitting to something like that anytime soon if it really is true."

"Torn has a thing for Ashelin?" both boys exclaimed in unison, trying to picture in their minds the stubborn and hardheaded commander going gaga over someone. The blond then added in a calmer tone, "Uh, I don't mean to be rude here, but I can't really imagine the guy actually trying to get together with someone he likes."

"Heh, tell me about it. I did say that it was only a rumor, so maybe we're just believing whoever started that wants us to believe. It'd be good if it was real and he really was in love with her. At least that way we'd all be able to see something nice happening around us besides the regular crap that goes around in this city. I swear, there really hasn't been much excitement ever since Praxis took over this place a year ago."

"Oh, all hell would break loose if that bossy guy actually fell in love with the girl and went all happy and smoochy with her," Daxter said as he made a fake gagging noise before actually choking a bit on some of his spit and coffee that made its way back up his throat from the action.

"You said you lived here all your life, didn't you Sig?" the blond teen asked as he leaned towards the table a bit and began to lightly pat the Ottsel's back to help him breath while trying to hide back a smirk. "Do you think you can tell me a bit more about how it used to be back then besides being better and more peaceful than it is now?"

"You mean to tell me that you still don't know much about what this place used to be before the baron's rule? I thought by now that you two had brushed up on your history in the six months you've been here. Boy was I ever wrong on that."

"Well, we haven't really had the opportune time to just stroll on into a library and pick out a book that'll help answer some questions," the animal responded once he recovered from his coughing fit and took another sip of his drink to help moisten his throat. "If it isn't going on suicide missions, then it's trying to avoid capture from the Krimzon Guards."

"That and we noticed that the library was in a part of the city that the guards decided to recently seal off from those who don't have this identification card of sorts," Jak added as he recalled the time when he really did tried to go to the library and found the only known way there closed off. "I think they just put it up because it wasn't there when we were doing a mission a couple weeks ago."

"Yes, I've noticed that happening myself," Sig responded as he clearly sounded troubled by what the KG was doing. "It's almost as if they're trying to divide the city from each other or something like that. Just yesterday, I was trying to get to the bar in the harbor and ended up having to turn back because of a security checkpoint they installed. I don't know what it is that they're planning, but it doesn't spell out good news for us."

"You don't think that they're trying to keep us away from each other, do you?" Daxter asked as he was trying to brainstorm for ideas as to why this was taking place. "They can't really be trying to better defend this dump from the time when those Metal Heads, which Jak and I have yet to see, get in here and start going crazy. And because Tattooed Wonder has been sending us to different parts of the city, they probably decided to commit to damage control and pen us in at wherever it is we're at."

"You know, that actually isn't a bad thought," the blond teen said in a teasing tone that hardly masked the surprise projected in his words. "I'm pretty surprised with you buddy. I didn't think that you'd be able to come up with something that might actually make sense and have it stick in my mind for a change."

"But if you think about it, that's really the only thing that makes sense here," the Ottsel countered as he placed his cup back down onto the table and went back to his resting place next to the teen's arm on the armrest. "It just can't be meant as a source of protection for the people because we all know that they're incapable of even doing one thing right if and when their life depends on it."

"Well, whatever the reason is, it's clear that this is going to make our job that much harder from here on out," the man responded with a sigh escaping his lips as he cracked his knuckles. "Torn told me that he noticed this going on as well when he briefed me about my last mission. According to what some of our guys that we've been cut off from say, he thinks that there's either three or four checkpoints placed now, thus officially splitting the city into at least four sections. Regular people can't go through them without being pushed back slightly by some weak burst of energy."

"But the Krimzon Guard must be able to move through them without any trouble. It'd probably defeat the purpose for them if they put them up and couldn't move through them themselves."

"Being that this is something new they've started to implement, we're going to need some time to figure things out. We're most likely going to have to change tactics a bit, meaning that your next mission might be something else other than stealing canisters of Eco from the Krimzon transports. I guess your wish just might come true in wanting to have other jobs besides retrieval missions, right Daxter?"

"Wow, I'm surprised you actually paid attention to my stupid rant ten minutes ago. Most people tend to just zone out on me whenever I start running my mouth. And yes Jak, I notice that happening a lot around me, so wipe that dopey look off your face," the small animal replied as he saw his buddy with his mouth slightly opened through his peripheral vision. "You of all people should already know that I'm not as dumb and inattentive as I always seem to make others around me feel."

"Actually, I'm more surprised that you actually admitted that people don't really like to pay attention to you," the blond corrected as he quickly tried to cover up his surprise by pouring out of the second untouched pot on the tray. It was light brown in color and held a light flowery scent to it, standard traits that mainly existed in teas. "You're usually too hung up over wanting to be the center of attention that you never say anything about those who're not noticing you and pretend to be oblivious."

"Yeah, don't start getting used to me admitting things I don't like to admit to around others. It ain't going to be happening very often, and I don't plan on making a habit out of it anytime soon."

"Anyway, do you mind if we talked about something else other than these new security systems?" Sig asked as he tried to change the subject to something apart from their current problem. "Talking about something we know almost nothing about is only going to end up confusing us even more."

"Well, it kind of depends on what you want to talk about," Daxter responded coolly as he moved onto his buddy's shoulder and rested on his stomach along the back of his neck. "If you're going to ask about our private lives, then I'm afraid that you're not going to get a single thing out of us."

"I'm a soldier of The Resistance Daxter, not some lowly unemployed stalker with nothing better to do than to pry into other people's lives," the buff man said as he gave the animal the shifty eye while Jak lightly flicked his tail, knowing that even that slight touch would bother his naturally sensitive appendage. "Rather, I wanted to get a couple of details regarding your missions, if you don't mind."

"And what is it that you want to know about it?" Jak asked as he raised his eyebrow at this odd request. "I can't really see why you seem so interested in what we do. It couldn't be any different from what you once did when you were starting out."

"I want to know a bit more about the cargo you were told to take control of and bring to Torn. More precisely, I want to know if any of those canisters that you transported were opened at some point."

"What's it to you if they were opened or not?" the Ottsel asked, trying to keep his voice from squeaking from surprise at the sudden question. "Those things were sealed as tight as a piece of undiscovered Precursor crap when we got them, and they stayed that way the whole time we had them in our possession."

"Unfortunately, I highly doubt that. I've been opening these canisters myself for quite a while because I have the tools to make sure that there aren't any traps hidden on the canister that might be activated if opened by unauthorized people. I've noticed for the past couple of months that not only have they been opened, but they have also been dipped into and were no longer filled to the brim as they usually are. You two mind explaining that to me why it's like that? And don't say that the Krimzon Guard probably did something stupid because all of them know better than to mess with cargo as precious as this."

"...Why is the Eco in those canisters so important to Torn?" the teen questioned, choosing to admit that he and Daxter were the ones who opened the canisters by telling him what the contents were, something that they were not supposed to know.

"I knew it was you two taking a bit of the Eco from those canisters," the buff man responded, a sort of triumphant smirk on his lips. "You two were the only ones with time enough to open them and take however much you did while transporting it from the Krimzon Guard back to our base."

"Dare I even ask if you're going to be turning us in to the big man for stealing?" the Ottsel stated the question more than asked. "Yeah, we know what we did was wrong, but we only took one jar of the stuff every time we were transporting them. It's not like he's going to miss one measly jar out of however many left that was in there."

"Trust me when I say this Daxter; you two would have had your behinds badly whooped and left hanging in the streets by now if Torn knew. The only reason he hasn't done this yet is because I, being the only person whose supposed to handle the canisters of the stuff, hasn't told him about it yet. I would like to keep this secret between us, but I can't really guarantee that I won't accidentally have a slip of the tongue if you don't tell me why it is you need the stuff."

"Wow, I never knew good friends liked to blackmail each other here," the blond teen said with a huff of his breath as he took his buddy off of his neck and placed him on his lap where he laid perfectly still. "To be honest with you, even I don't really know why we might be needing Eco right now. I mean, I know how to use it correctly, but I do have plans to let them help me find someone that might be here."

"Treating Eco as a homing beacon? I never heard of anything like that being done in this day and age except in cases of the Eco Sages, but there hasn't been any signs of one for the longest of times. It's most likely because they've already been killed off by the Metal Heads and haven't had a successor to claim the title yet."

"Well, it never hurt to give it a try right?" Jak countered with a shrug of his shoulders, trying to ignore the comment about all the sages being killed off already. "You never know when things might actually work out to our advantage."

"Well, maybe you could take some of that wishful thinking and try asking for help with it," Sig suggested as he flashed a supportive smile at the teen. "If you could just tell me the name of the person you're looking for, I can put in some effort on my part to see whether or not they're anywhere in this city."

"I suppose it couldn't help to let you in on their names and help us find them," the Ottsel admitted with a heavy sigh escaping his lips as he escaped from under Jak's hand and went to his cup of coffee for another sip. "You are the only person we can really trust right now and all that. Their names are Samos and Keira. Have you ever heard of them?"

"Samos and Keira, huh?" the buff man repeated as he had a thoughtful look on his face while trying to see if he could recall those names. After a few seconds, he said, "Sorry, I can't say I'm familiar with those names. I will keep an ear out for them out on the streets though if that'll be of any help to you two."

"Thanks Sig, that'll really help us a lot," the blond thanked him, suppressing his dejection at not getting the breakthrough he had been trying to find for the past six months. He then added apologetically, "Sorry for taking some of the Eco out of the canisters without you guys knowing."

"What are you talking about?" he questioned with a small wink at the teen. "I don't remember ever talking to you about anything that had to do with Eco."

"Not that I'm against you keeping quiet for us, but should you really be doing that?" Daxter asked as he began to pour his third cup of coffee, much to Jak's objection and headache at the thought of having to deal with a very hyper Ottsel later that night. "I mean, you are the one who's checking out every one of those canisters on your own when we bring them in."

"What they don't know won't hurt anybody. Just make sure you don't do anything stupid and make it obvious for someone to notice other than me. And don't take more than what you've already been taking.

"Anyway, I think I better get going," he added as he got up off his seat and stretched his arms a bit. "I have another mission that I need to be doing tomorrow morning, and I have a feeling that I'll need all the rest I can get. I'll talk to you later boys."

"Aww, and we were all starting to get all chummy and sharing secrets best kept to ourselves," the animal said with a fake childish pout as he took a swig from his cup. "Way to ruin the mood, tough guy."

"You promise that you're going to keep an ear out for our friends when you're out there?" the teen asked as the buff man opened the door.

"I'm not the type of guy to just go making promises and end up breaking them. I promise that you'll be the first two to know when I hear anything from them. It ain't going to be easy, but maybe you could try to ask the help of the leader of The Resistance for the time being instead of just waiting for me to dig up some info."

"I don't think the Tattooed Wonder would want to tell us about things like that. He's too busy and uptight to pay much attention to us except for when he's giving us missions."

"I'm not talking about Torn. He's only the commander; he's not the leader. I don't know his actual name, but he answers to 'The Shadow'."

"The Shadow? Do you think that he'll be able to help us locate our friends?"

"I don't know about that Jak. All I know is that he knows this city inside-out like the back of his hand, and he has his way of getting information. I doubt you'll be able to get an audience with him anytime soon, so don't go getting your hopes up for his help. Anyway, I really got to go now. I'll see you around sometime."

And with that, Sig shut the door behind him and left the two teens staring at each other, both asking each other silently what they were going to do next in their attempt to look for their missing friends. Yes, they got some new help and information as to how to find them, but they also learned that it will be pretty hard to get to the help they would probably need to look for them. Oh, if only things were as easy as they used to be when they were still living in Sandover with only minor problems to fix.

* * *

Yeah... this chapter was kind of hard for me to write. It started to feel a bit rushed and random at the end, yet I knew that I wanted to put those last bits of details so that it would help advance the story. Also, sorry for those of you who wanted to see some more action being that the story is basically being picked up from the first installment, but I just want to build up to it first and show how things are working out for Jak and Daxter.

Also, for those of you wondering whether or not Osmo and Simon, the guys who own and work for the Critter Ridder Exterminator Company, will make an appearance, I'm sorry to say that they won't. I could not really find any place to put them into the story except for a small cameo appearance on the first installment as a place for the two guys to work at in order to get back in their feet in a city both unknown and dangerous to them.

Anyway, please don't forget to leave a review for me on how I wrote this chapter. Until the next update everybody!


	4. Moving up the Ranks

Hello everybody! Sorry for the long wait in an update for this story. For those of you who have noticed, the site has been down and a good chunk of people have been unable to update any of their stories. I just happened to be one of the unfortunate victims of this injustice. Oh well, the important thing now is that it's fixed and this new chapter is up.

Anyway, it's time to move this story on to the next level and build on to the plot. And just to clarify to some of my reviewers; Sig is not going to be asking The Shadow about Samos and Keira. It doesn't fit in with my ideas, and he's too busy to really be talking with him. And as for saying that Jak should learn how to shoot, he already knows how. He wouldn't have really made the cut to become a member of the Resistance if he didn't know how to use one three months ago.

I hope that clears up some of the reviewers' questions and thoughts. Hope that you all enjoy this new and long overdue chapter. Until the next update everybody!

And just as a note, I just finished writing a new one-shot for Jak and Daxter. It's titled "Battle in Spargus Desert". Hope you guys will read it once you're done with this and review both of them.

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**Chapter 4: Moving up the Ranks**

When the next morning had approached, Jak and Daxter were rudely awakened by the sound of the blonde's communicator ringing away on top of the dresser table next to them. The Ottsel lazily uncurled himself and rolled off of his perch on top of the teen's chest just as the teen himself rolled over to his side towards the direction where the sound was coming from. Raising a lazy hand from under the covers of the warm blankets, he wrapped his fingers around the small device and accepted the incoming call.

"Jak, I need to see you and your buddy back at the base," the sound of Torn, the commander of The Resistance and the one who issued the missions to their people, was heard commanding. "I got something important I want to talk to you both about, and I want you guys here as soon as possible. Don't even think about taking some side trips and making me wait any longer than I have to."

Before the teen had a chance to pose an adequate response, he heard the other's end of the communication line disconnect and was replaced with a light static sound. Without saying anything and allowing a sigh that ended up turning into a yawn leave his mouth, he got up and groggily went to the bathroom to get himself ready for the potentially long day ahead of him. Daxter had opted to get in a few more minutes of shut eye and wrapped the still warm blankets around him. Being that he could not generate his own body heat, the blankets would only work for a few more minutes, but those extra minutes of sleep were better than nothing for him. That and he needed to wait a little bit for the big guy to be done before he could go get himself ready in the bathroom.

Once both boys had finished prepping themselves up within a combined seven minutes, they left the apartment with a piece of toast in their hands that Jak made right after he gotten himself ready. It was not much of a breakfast, but it was definitely better than running on a completely empty stomach for only the Precursors knew how long. When they reached the lobby of their apartment complex, they noticed that Tess was not manning the receptionist's desk that day. Being that she has been working there for at least the past six months they lived there and never missed a day, they found it to be a bit weird. However, that was the last thing on their minds as they quickly exited the building and boarded a Zoomer that was on loan from Sig whenever he was out on a mission.

This whole entire thing including the drive through town to the base all happened about thirty minutes ago. The two teens had first entered the base expecting to be able to just walk in and straight to Torn's office, but they were stopped short when they saw the door shut. When they knocked lightly to see if he was in, they only received a rough "I'm busy," from inside. Not being able to do much of anything else, they sat down on the lounge chairs nearby and have been sitting there ever since.

"Alright, this whole waiting game he has us playing is starting to become really ridiculous," Daxter said with an aggravated sigh forcibly leaving his lips. He was right now lying flat on his stomach on top the arm chair mindlessly tapping his fingers on the material. "We've been waiting here for a long while now. You'd think that he'd want to talk to us as quickly as possible after waking us up so early in the morning and telling us to get here as quickly as we could. Talk about being an inconsiderate piece of work."

"It was barely eight in the morning when he called us Dax," Jak responded with a small smile while bringing his left hand to the animal's back and stroking it lightly as a way to try and calm him down. "Give or take, we got here about fifteen minutes after prepping ourselves and driving here. I'm sure something really important that required his immediate attention came up during that time. He's not really the type to break of appointments without a good reason."

"Oh, I'm not saying that Tattooed Wonder is an appointment breaker," the Ottsel said as he barely registered that there was a hand stroking away at his back. Unlike other times, it was not really working its calming magic on him on this occasion. "What I'm really saying here is that he's nothing but a supplier of backbreaking and life threatening work. Have you kept count of how many missions he's had us working on ever since we first started three months ago? We've been on about forty of them as of now, all of them just taking canisters of eco from those Krimzon buttheads and bringing them back to him. He has us doing nothing but boring jobs that's not even worth our salt in doing."

"Cut the guy some slack buddy," the blond said with a small roll of his eyes that was not really in annoyance but more at the stuff the other was saying. "The things he has to do behind the desk is probably a lot more dangerous than the things any of us do. He has to make sure that he has every hole sealed when we go on crazy missions so as to not have the Krimzon Guard trace us back to this base. One single mess-up on his end of things and everything will be falling apart right from under our feet. Have you ever thought of it like that?"

"Since when have you known me to think of things like that?" the animal questioned as he half-heartedly shoved the stroking hand away and sat straight up. Jak had then turned his hand into a fist and allowed the other to lean back on it as if it were a backrest. "I like to think of things at face value only. That way, I won't be taken by complete surprise in case things do end up hitting the roof and we're forced to run for our lives or something as drastic as that. It does wonders in helping to tone things down in the internal mind surprise department, you know? You should try it out sometime."

"Yeah, I think I'll pass on that idea and keep up with the optimistic side of thinking, thank you very much. It's the only way of thinking that I know how to do. And besides, we'll be able to keep each other in balance in case either one of us starts to lean too heavily on one thought prematurely and end up becoming tricked into a sense of false security, something that we shouldn't be caught in this city and timeframe."

"Geez, I still can't believe that we actually managed to travel all the way here to this unreal future of ours. Who would've thought that things could've taken such a turn for the worse in two hundred years? If you did the math, then we should be at least two hundred and seventeen years old by now. I never thought that I'd live to be that long."

"I'm sure you're only being sarcastic there and that I'll probably suffer a comment backlash from you for saying this, but we only jumped through time. I'm more than sure that we're the same age as we were from before we came here."

"Oh, you just have to open your big mouth and take the fun away from everything, do you?" Daxter responded with a frown that tried to cover up a smirk. He knew, however, that Jak would have been able to catch it, and catch it he did as indicated by the smirk he was flashing back at him and the small playful shove against his back.

Before they could continue on with their rather pointless yet unwinding conversation, the door to Torn's office suddenly opened up. Immediately, they shifted their gaze towards it to see if it was the commander asking them to now come in so they could commence with whatever they were asked to come here for. Instead, they saw a woman, and a familiar one at that, with familiar red dreads ending just past her neck walking out.

"Hey, you look kind of familiar," the Ottsel responded out loud, eliciting a stare from the woman as she froze right in front of the doorway. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow as her eyes seemingly reflected the same feeling Dax was showing. "Haven't we met somewhere before sometime in the distant past?"

"Your name's Ashelin, isn't it?" Jak inquired as he slowly stood up from the couch and walked a few steps ahead until he was at a distance suitable to hold a conversation while also being respectfully distant from her.

"Yes, I am," she answered in a femininely masculine tone as she cocked her head to the side minutely for a second before bringing it back to its rightful position. "And might I ask who you two are?"

"I'm Jak, and this furry little guy on my shoulder's Daxter," the blond introduced himself as he felt the animal quickly scurry onto his self-proclaimed perch with a small frown on his face at being called little. "You were one of the people who rescued us from the Baron's palace three months ago, weren't you?"

"Three months ago?" Ashelin repeated as she crossed her eyebrows a bit in a thoughtful manner. A second later, her eyes lit up with recognition as she closed the office door that was still open behind her. "Oh, you two were the ones who managed to get yourselves caught by the Krimzon Guards and had to be busted out before they did their Dark Eco experiments on you. Boy, I never thought that I'd be seeing the two of you again, especially as allies in the same base. I take it then that you both decided to take part in our cause to revive Haven City back to its former rightful glory, right?"

"I suppose you could say something like that," Daxter responded with a small shrug of his scrawny shoulders as he mindlessly picked at the ends of one of his super thin whiskers that could have easily been missed by anybody. "We just figured that since we didn't really have much to do, we'd go ahead and join the Resistance and help you guys out. It was better than just sitting around our apartment while wondering when the Krimzon bozos will be barging in and taking us back to their place for their experiments."

"Well, constantly moving around and never staying in one place for a long time is the best way to keep yourself safe from these corrupt guards," the woman agreed with a small nod of her head before she took a communicator from her pocket and presumably checked the time on it. "It's an especially good tactic when you're forced to live right under the enemy's nose. Anyway, I better hurry and get on with my mission. Torn wants me to check up on something that concerns the baron and needs the results of it as soon as possible. I'll see you two around sometime. Oh, and tell the commander that I was busy talking to you, and that's why you were taking a while out here," she added in a slightly elevated tone as if she were trying to speak through a wall.

"W-wait a minute!" Jak stammered, but she had continued on down the hallway and towards the only known exit. Within a few more seconds, she had turned the corner and officially disappeared from their sight. "Wow, that was definitely the shortest conversation that I ever had with anybody."

"Tell me about it big guy," the Ottsel responded as he scratched the tip of one of his ears absentmindedly while moving restlessly between the two shoulders in a pacing manner. "Even all those annoying conversations I had with old Loghead were longer and a lot more interesting than this one. I guess that's what happens when you're busy trying to save the place you live in from crazy rulers."

"I suppose so," the teen simply said with a shrug of his shoulders as he continued to stare down the hallway a few seconds more before turning around and facing the door that lead into Torn's office. "Come on, let's hurry up and meet up with the commander. Ashelin managed to give us an excuse to be hanging out here, and I don't want to be chewed out for making him wait any longer unexcused."

"Yeesh, you'd think that he'd learn to relax over small simple things like us coming into his office a minute or two after his meeting with someone is done. It seriously can't be good for his heart, especially when there are so many other sources of stress that could make him go belly up. That and it's probably fair that we make him wait for us a little while after making us do the same thing."

"Uh, you do know that term is usually used with fish who are dead and floating on top of the water, right?" the other said as he placed his hand on the doorknob and gave it a small twist before opening it slightly.

"It's about time you two decided to come in here," the sound of Torn's voice was heard calling out from across the room right after the door was fully opened. "I heard from here what Ashelin said about you talking with her, so thank you for not wasting any more time after finishing your discussions."

Once the two were inside, the blond closed the door with a soft click and walked slowly up towards the desk where the commander was sitting behind of working on some papers spread out across the surface. Daxter was busy mumbling something rather incoherent that only Jak could hear being that he was so close to his ear. Even with that being the case, he could only have guessed what it was he had said being that it was too soft to be understood, but he already had a pretty good idea as to what it was.

"You got something to say to me, you annoying orange rat?" the man behind the desk questioned without looking up from his work and keeping his hand moving over the paper with pen in hand. "If you're going to say something, say it loud enough so that everybody in here can hear you perfectly."

"Have you ever figured that I might have something I want to say to Jak here and don't want anybody else to hear about it?" Daxter shot back with a sarcastic bite to his words. "Unless you want to hear all of my most personal and probably embarrassing secrets that only he would know, then how about you try minding your own business? You don't hear us asking about your personal life, although I myself am a bit curious as to what you do outside bossing us around and sitting on your lazy behind in this place."

"I never thought I'd be saying this, but touché," he admitted as he put the finishing touches on the paper he was working on and placed the pen down. "And no, you're not going to know the things I do outside working for this base."

"Might I ask what it was that you asked us to come here so quickly for almost a whole hour ago?" Jak asked before they went off topic and ended up waiting another hour for the reason why they were asked to come here. "With all due respect, you asked us to rush here as quickly as we could, and we're both a bit tired and annoyed at having to wait a half an hour after that. If it really were that urgent, then I would have figured that you would've wanted to see us the moment we got here."

"Always blunt and wanting to get to the point aren't you? Don't get me wrong; I want to get this over with as quickly as you do so I can get on with my other important things. Now to get on with this meeting, I've decided to assign the both of you on another mission that I want you to finish as soon as you can."

"Aright, where do you want us to park our butts and wait for the Krimzon Guard transport Zoomer to ambush?" the Ottsel asked in a boring tone as he seemingly already knew what they were going to be asked to do without yet being debriefed about the specifics. "To be quite honest with you, these jobs are seriously starting to get real boring, but we'll do it if you really need us to do it."

"You haven't even heard what it is that I'm asking you to do. Stop assuming you already know everything and let me get on with this meeting for the sake of both of us quickly getting this over with. Now, I want you guys to go on a mission _different_ from what I've usually been putting you two on up till now."

"A different job?" the blond repeated inquisitively as he raised his eyebrow at Torn upon hearing this. "Did you manage to figure something through examining all the things you've been having me and Dax get for you, or is there something more pressing that requires you to put us on a different mission?"

"To be quite honest with you two, it's kind of a combination of the two," Torn admitted with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "You see, I asked you two to go ahead and capture those canisters from those transport vehicles because I was suspecting something going on. With the things that were in there, it only goes to further the suspicions floating around in my head."

"And what was it that were in those canisters?" the teen asked quickly, cutting off a response he both knew and felt being formed inside his little buddy's head while feigning interest in something he already knew to keep any suspicions at bay. "I've been wondering why you always wanted us to take things that were all in the same thing. What's so important about them that you needed to take them?"

"Well, those canisters that you've been bringing back to us have all been filled with Eco. While I still don't know why it was that those simple canisters were being kept under relatively close guard, I can clearly say that I smell something rotten cooking with all this. Also, we've been keeping tabs on the baron's men for quite a while now, and there aren't any Eco warehouses along the routes that we had you ambush them on."

"And as such, you're wondering what they're planning to do with the stuff if they aren't going around putting it away in some kind of hidden safety deposit box kind of place," Daxter finished as he began to grow thoughtful on the subject, something that he did not usually do under most normal circumstances. "And before you say anything, I do pay attention to some of the things you spew out. I just don't like listening to the sound of your voice."

"It's a wonder why I even keep your annoying little self around here. Fortunately for your big mouth, you're right on that. We have some people in the Krimzon Guard working for us, and we know through them that the baron hasn't made another secret stash of Eco since the day he took interest in you. That was when the transport of Eco started to arise, and they aren't being taking from one storehouse to another. We tried sending a couple of low-key scouts to follow the transport, but we never hear from them again."

"Why do I have a feeling I know where this conversation is going?" Jak asked with a small groan coming at the same time from his buddy on his shoulder. "And I'm supposing that you're not going to be giving us much choice in the matter."

"Well, you two are the only ones who I can feel comfortable sending in for this kind of mission. In essence, I would like you two to follow another Eco transport and see where it is that the Baron's sending them to. This is something that I need to know, and you two are the only ones capable enough to go through this mission and survive it."

"And what makes you so sure that we're going to achieve what some of your other men couldn't?" the Ottsel asked with great skepticism apparent in all four corners of his voice. "You said it yourself that a couple of your own men ended up dying on the same job that you are trying to send the both of us on. And considering that we both happen to have a certain history with the Krimzon Guard, I highly doubt that we'd survive an attack against them if and when they catch us following them."

"And I highly doubt that that would be something that'll happen to you two," Torn countered with a small snort of his breath. "The reason why I'm sending you two on this mission is because I'm more than positive that you'll be able to finish it and come back to us alive. Even if you were to be captured by them, the chances of them killing you on the spot should be quite low. After all, I've taken to figure that the commander of the guards has had an eye on you two ever since you broke out of the palace. I suppose you can call it safety through the stubbornness of the enemy."

"Sounds like a pretty risky bet on safety there," the blond teen stated with skepticism clear in his voice. "Just because Errol has a beef to pick with us for making a fool out of him right in front of the Baron, that doesn't necessarily mean that he'd want to capture us alive and run the risk of being embarrassed again."

"You don't know how Errol likes to think," the man responded with a shake of his head as he tried to prove the teen wrong. "He's been the commander of the Krimzom Guard almost as long as I've been the commander of the Resistance. In all the times we've had minor skirmishes with him and his men, he's always exuded this type of stubbornness that could almost be seen as an obsession. He's made it his personal mission to try and take us all out, but he has been showing less interest in us these past months."

"We already took a figurance that the guy was too stubborn for his own good," Daxter said as both guys in the room raised an eyebrow at the strange word he used. Seemingly reading this curiosity hanging in the air, he explained, "It's my way of saying that I already kind of figured on that being the case. And before you start grilling me about that, are you saying that he's obsessed with us? I know we're both good looking and all that, but I didn't think that he'd go chasing us to the ends of the planet if he wanted to."

"Look, the more time we stand here talking about nonsense that has nothing to do with this mission debriefing, the less time you'll have to track down that Eco transport. I'm sorry to have to cut this short, but hurry up and get yourselves into position. Our sources say that they should be heading towards the direction of their weapons warehouse."

"Is it in a part of the city that we can have access to?" Jak asked as he remembered talking to Sig yesterday about the new security measures that the Baron was putting up all over. "We can't really follow them if they move into a spot inaccessible to us."

"I see you've already noticed the new security measures all over the city. Don't worry; their warehouse is just a few minutes drive from here. Until it comes to following them inside, which is something that you'll most likely have to do, there shouldn't be anywhere you can't easily get to while on their tail. Now hurry up and get out of here! They'll be on the move soon, and we can't afford for this chance to slip by."

"Jeez, aren't we in a rush to get what you want," the Ottsel scoffed with a roll of his eyes at the sudden command directed at them. "Things aren't going to be moving any quicker just because you boss us around."

"We'll be back with the information as soon as we can," the blond teen stated as he turned around towards the office exit with his buddy still planted firmly on his shoulder. "Hopefully, this shouldn't pose too much trouble."

"I so hope you're right on that Jak," Torn said just as the two teens reached the door and left the office. When the door slammed shut, he then mumbled to himself, "What I really hope is that you don't end up figuring out something about the Baron's plans that could easily take us all out. It's just not natural to be transporting all that Eco to somewhere unless you're planning something large. As much as I know I'm not, I really hope I'm wrong."

With a worried sigh leaving his lips, he picked up his discarded pen once more and began to skim through the rest of his papers that had laid forgotten.


	5. Author's Note

Hello everybody! Boy, it's been the longest time since I've even written anything for this story. And before you go asking, this isn't an actual story chapter update. This is just an author's note that serves a couple of purposes.

The first purpose should be obvious. It just goes to show that I'm still alive in terms of this story and haven't abandoned it. I'm too proud with this story to just go abandoning it like I have with other stories. This is like the very first one that I was actually happy to have written, so this is still alive but stuck in bloody hibernation.

For those of you who have been wondering, I am very sorry for the long wait. There have been a lot of stuff popping up into my life from the last time I sent out an update for this story. I had to go on a required meeting and training for a summer job. I had worked there for three years, but they had new stuff to go over and took up much of my time. And as if that weren't enough, college started to catch up with me and took up even more of my time. That and I had to take summer classes while in my summer job.

For those of you who have seen my profile, you'll notice that I do have other stories posted after the last one for this particular story. That's because so many things have been assaulting me that whenever I did have time to write, it was always about something else. This one had been pushed to the back of my mind just waiting to be dug up and woken up again.

The second reason why I'm writing this is to say that I'm planning to rewrite the first installment of this series, "The Altered Journey". I know I said earlier that I was proud with how that story came out; what I didn't like was how I did not read over each of the chapters and make corrections as needed. I was so psyched then that I wanted to post up the chapters and story progressions as soon as possible. As such, I'll be rewriting each of them and fixing those rather small errors that are driving me nuts while bumping up the quality of the story a bit.

For those of you who likes to read the rewritten portion and compare it with the original, you'll have nothing to fear. I'll still leave the other one up on this site for all to read. That and it's the only copy of the story I have. My original flashdrive that held this story got destroyed when I accidentally spilled hot spaghetti all over it. It was fresh with the tomato sauce all on it, and it melted the plastic around it. Yes, there was a part that was plastic, and it was unfortunately over some of the key chips.

Anyway, I'm once again so sorry for those who have been waiting so long for an update. I'm especially sorry to Silver, M-Angel, Angel Eyes. I know that you are close followers to my story and hate that I've been forcing you to wait so obscenely long for just a simple update. No need to fear, however, since I'll be working on the new chapter for this story while I'm rewriting the first installment. Also, after the first one is finished with it's rebirth, I'll rewrite the few chapters that are left in this one.

Thanks again for being so very patient with me while I try to navigate through the mental forests of my mind and the concrete jungle mesh known as college and life. I'm very sorry for the wait. Hope I'll see most of you when I update again.

Oh, and the first chapter for my rewritten story is already up for those of you who are curious to read it. Please leave a review on it after you're done reading so I can see how well my updated details and such are doing. Until the next update everybody!


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